Journalists' liberal bias: Why it matters, how it hurts

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Walter Cronkite, once called America's most trusted man, once
disagreed with me when I called most journalists "liberal." "If by liberal,"
he told me, "you mean open-minded, then, yes. This is true."

Cronkite, no longer constrained by the journalistic creed of
non-partisanship, now writes a weekly column. About liberal reporters, he
now pleads guilty: "I believe that most of us reporters are liberal, but not
because we consciously have chosen that particular color in the political
spectrum. More likely it is because most of us served our journalistic
apprenticeships as reporters covering the seamier sides of our cities -- the
crimes, the tenement fires, the homeless and the hungry, the underclothed
and undereducated."

Last week, I interviewed Mr. Cronkite and questioned him about
his rationale behind journalists' liberalism. If, I asked, journalists
become liberal because they see the underbelly, the downtrodden, the
miscast, how do you explain the conservatism of police officers, who, after
all, see exactly the same things? Cronkite, apparently uncomfortable with
the question, simply said, "Why should I?"

Liberal bias matters.

This bias affects consumers of "news" in subtle and
not-so-subtle ways. Here are some recent examples:

C-SPAN, last week, listed with voice-over the top best-selling
non-fiction books: "'Living History,' the memoir by Hillary Rodham Clinton
is first on the list. It is followed by 'Treason,' conservative pundit Ann
Coulter's book. . . . Barbara Ehrenreich looks at the unskilled labor market
in No. 3, 'Nickel and Dimed.'" Hold the phone. As to Hillary Clinton, C-SPAN
neither called her "liberal," nor "extremely liberal," nor "leftist," nor
even "progressive." Barbara Ehrenreich writes for a number of publications,
including one of the country's most liberal periodicals, The Nation. Indeed,
Ehrenreich is honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. Yet
while C-SPAN correctly identified Ann Coulter as "conservative," Ehrenreich
just got the good ol' Barbara Ehrenreich -- no adjective necessary --
treatment.

But it gets worse.

C-SPAN also said, "Author and filmmaker
Michael Moore comes in at No. 6 . . . " Moore just received funding for his
newest documentary, "Fahrenheit 911," its apparent premise that the Bush
family and the Osama bin Laden family, both in the oil business, combined
somehow to create September 11!

Moore, of course, castigated the Bush
administration when he won Best Documentary Oscar for his liberal,
anti-Second Amendment, anti-American documentary "Bowling for Columbine."
Yet C-SPAN simply called him "author and filmmaker" Michael Moore.

Here's another one. The Los Angeles Times and Investor's
Business Daily recently reported on increasingly good economic news.
However, both papers spun the news in dramatically different ways. Both
listed comments from three economists. But in the case of the Los Angeles
Times, the paper managed to find pessimistic economists who downplayed the
news, and added a big "but." One said, "But we'll have to wait and see about
jobs," and another said, "But in 2004 . . . that's going to fade." One found
no such qualifying "buts" from the economists quoted in the Investor's
article.

Californians, of course, face a gubernatorial recall election on
Oct. 7. The Los Angeles Times recently ran the following headline: "(Lt.
Governor) Bustamante Has Big Lead on Schwarzenegger." Yet, only weeks
earlier, the L.A. Times reported, deep in the article, that Schwarzenegger
enjoyed a 45 to 22 percent lead over his nearest rival. The headline? "Davis
Calls Recall an 'Insult' to His Supporters." Similarly, on Aug. 13, 2003,
the L.A. Times also noted that Arnold Schwarzenegger enjoyed a 20-point lead
over his nearest rival. The headline? "The Recall Campaign: Pollsters
Groping for Questions; A complex campaign and a crowded field a hard one for
those who weigh public opinion." So, in the L.A. Times, Cruz Bustamante
enjoys a "big lead," amounting to 13 percent. Yet, the same newspaper's
headlines neglect Schwarzenegger's even "bigger" lead of 20 points.

Want more? The "Today" show's Katie Couric questioned California
gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger's father's Nazi past. Yet,
Democratic lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante
once belonged to an organization called MEChA, with the following goal:
Reclaiming Aztlan -- which they roughly define as the "stolen" Southwestern
states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Utah -- for
the Chicano (or indigenous) population. Their own literature states, "We are
free and sovereign to determine those tasks which are justly called for by
our house, our land, the sweat of our brows, and by our hearts. Aztlan
belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the
crops, and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious
frontiers on the bronze continent."

Yet the media showed more interest in a 26-year-old article in
which Schwarzenegger discussed his raunchy sexual behavior and use of drugs.
But Bustamante's membership in an organization that contemptuously calls
whites "gringos" and "gabachos," and has the stated goal of apparent
military "reconquest" of the Southwest, drew comparatively less attention.